Bankruptcy Filings Dip Lower
Nationwide bankruptcy filings were 5 percent lower in October 2016 compared with a year earlier, falling even lower than last month’s reported decrease, according to October 2016 AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems.
Bankruptcy filings totaled 63,042 in October, which was an increase from September’s total of 64,614, and was approximately 2.4 percent higher than October 2015’s total of 63,042 (an increase of 1,572). Year-to-date, there have been 656,125 bankruptcy filings nationwide for the past nine months of 2016 (about 65,613 per month), down from 2015’s year-to-date total through the end of October of 700,014 (about 70,001 per month).
The average number of filings per day in October 2016 was 3,152 over 20 days, which is an increase from September’s daily average of 3,077 over 21 days. The extra filing day in September compared to October accounts for the slight increase in the number of filings in September; had October featured 21 filing days, there would have been over 100 more filings averaged per day than in September. Bankruptcy filings have averaged 3,121 for the past nine months of 2016 over a period of 210 filing days.
October’s total of 63,042 bankruptcy filings was less than half of the peak total for the month of September recorded in 2010 of 135,771.
The state with the most cumulative filings for the past nine months of 2016 was again California with 61,173. As has been the trend, Illinois was second in year-to-date filings with 44,965. The next three states with the most cumulative filings were Georgia (39,3777) Florida (37,430), and Ohio (30,888).
Tennessee and Alabama continued to rank first and second among states in bankruptcy filings per capita for October with 5.66 and 5.53 for every 10,000 people, respectively. Those numbers were virtually the same as September’s numbers. The national average of filings per capita in October 2016 held steady over-the-month at 2.53, though it has increased by about 50 basis points since January 2016’s average of 2.02 percent.
Epiq Systems is a leading global provider of technology-enabled solutions for electronic discovery, bankruptcy and class action administration. Top legal professionals depend on us for deep subject-matter expertise and years of firsthand experience working on many of the largest, most high-profile and complex client engagements. Epiq Systems, Inc. has locations in the United States, Europe and Asia.
